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A Portable Satellite ISP in the Middle East?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-net-connection-in-the-desert dept.

charyou-tree asks: "I'm a US Navy doctor deployed with the Marines in Afghanistan. I and many Marines have brought along our own laptop computers, but hooking up non-government machines to the network here is prohibited. Consequently, we're all stuck waiting in long lines for 15 minute blocks of time on a few designated 'morale' computers to send email home. What I'd like to do is set up a bidirectional satellite connection (like what DIRECWAY offers in the US), and then have individual computers hooked up over 802.11 - completely bypassing the Army network and its restrictions. In the sense that I'll be providing network access to other people I'll be an ISP, but I'm not interested in turning a profit on this. What other hardware and service provider options are there?" "The absolute requirements are:

1) Needs function in Afghanistan and Iraq (since we expect to go there next)
2) Needs be reasonably portable
3) Needs be end-user installable
4) Some way to throttle bandwidth to individual users so one guy can't bog the whole thing down.

So far I've only found one bit of hardware (the Hughes Personal Earth Station) but no service providers; what else, besides 802.11 cards and an access point do I need? "

6 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Iridium? by jasoncart · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Pretty slow at 2.4 to 10Kbps, and probably pricey. However - it is proven for the uses you mention.

  2. Re:You Need A Good Lawyer by wayne606 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't assume he hasn't already investigated that issue and found out it wouldn't be a problem. Are soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan allowed to make phone calls home without supervision? If so then I can't see how homebrew internet connectivity would be forbidden. It's not like Al Qaeda is going to get any useful information by tapping into their WiFi networks (or will they?)

  3. The perfect solution... by austad · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If I could only remember where we got it...

    I used to work for Travelers Express/Moneygram. They are like Western Union. For some of our money transfer stations in Africa and places where local phone service/long distance was too expensive, we got these things that looked like laptops. The part that looked like a screen was a satellite panel. You opened it up to the right angle and rotated the unit so it pointed at the satellite.

    They cost something like $100 a month for 10MB of data. Charged by the K after that. I'm not 100% sure on the speed either, but if your priority is email, that doesn't matter a whole lot unless you are sending pics. I think the speed was pretty decent though.

    Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me remember who made them or where we got service from. They were useless in the US because the satellite they point at was over the other hemisphere.

    It's not phone service either, it was an internet connection.

    --
    Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
  4. Thank you by knightPhlight · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm a Marine and am damn thankful for the things you and your Corpsmen do for us. Believe me, I wouldn't be humping around the country side with only a 9mm.

    You are welcome to my DirecWay dish (parabolic.. about 2' x 3') and the RX/TX unit (a DW4000). See the dish. The dish weighs 80lbs approx. Aiming the dish is usually done by a professional installer with a special signal strength meter. Anyone have a good POC for getting one of those? Little yellow device IIRC.

    I don't have the DW4020 (right model number?) which has the built-in router so a Windows machine would be required as the RX/TX unit is USB with no available OSS drivers. A headless mini-ITX machine would be perfect. It could do bandwidth control and NAT/DHCP as well. I've run this same setup (albeit stationary) without any trouble. Download speed is great but capped to 169Mb per four hours (see more detail. Upload is good enough for email and the all important pr0n.

    As long as the motor pool would allow it, it could be mounted to the side of a hummer or 5 ton very easily. Setup/takedown would be minimal. It's bright white so motor T may need to donate some paint as well. Might be a bitch getting cami netting over it.

    Can the rest of Slashdot see any problems or offer any other help?

    1. Re:Thank you by mlyle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Unfortunately, your dish will not work. The direcway satellite is in geosynchronous orbit over the equator, at a longitude/antenna pattern that works well for North America; Afghanistan is literally on the other side of the world.

      I wish the submitter luck-- unfortunately, it's going to only be served by little LEOs (expensive service offerings) and regional geosynchronous providers that we're not familiar with here in the states. It's a shame that the military doesn't have a little more infrastructure for morale for everyone who's putting it on the line for us.

  5. swe-dish? by ptudor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Would anything from SWE-DISH help out? I remember reports from new organizations about it last year. Pretty much it has 1M satellite on one side with 10/100 rj45 Ethernet on the other, in a suitcase.